Gearing for grain-drills.



1 ,326,368. Patented Dec. 30, 1919.

C. H. PELTON.

BEARING FOR GRAIN DRILLS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV-10,1917.

Inventor CharlesH/Qtow CHARLES H. PELTON, OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, ASSIGNORTO THE THOMAS MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OFSPRINGFIELD, OHIO, ACORPGR-ATION OF OHIO.

GEABING FOB. GRAIN-DRILLS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 30, 1919.

Application filed November 10, 1917. Serial No. 201,265.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Crmnnns H. PEL'roN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Springfield, in the county of Clark and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Gearing forGrain-Drills, of which. the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to gearing for grain drills and aims to improvethe construction of prior patents to the applicant, No. 700,231, May 28,1902 and No. 736A36, Aug. 18, 1903.

In these prior patents there is shown a change gearing for grain drillsin which a distributor shaft is connected to a driving axle through aconnecting shaft having pinions mounted thereon. these pinions meshingrespectively with the gears on the driving axle and the distributorshaft. The construction of the patents has been generally satisfactoryin commercial. use but it has been found that in some cases the extentof hearing or journal surface was not sufficient and an occasionalbreakage of parts resulted.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simpleand effective construction of the connecting shaft referred to notliable to wear or breakage and easily oiled and kept in good condition.

Referring to the drawin Figure '1. shows a side elevation of a graindrill hopper and the mechanism of the invention applied thereto; and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the connecting shaft and associatedparts. the view being in vertical section.

Referring to the drawings the parts of the invention generally are shownas nearly similar to the corresponding parts of the patents referred to.The grain hopper 1 carries the distributer shaft 2 by means of" abearing block 91, which block may be fastened to the bottom of thehopper in any desired way. As a preferred form the construction shown inthe earlier of the two patents referred to may be employed. Thedistributer shaft 2 is shown as square in cross section and has splinedthereon a bevel gear 3 which drives it. The driving axle 7 is supportedin a journal or housing and fast to this axle is a change gear 4.1. asshown in the prior patents. A. connecting shaft 4: carries bevel gears 5near its lower end and 71 near its upper end, the gear 5 being adaptedto be driven by the change gear 4.1 and the gear 71 meshing with anddriving the gear 3 on the distributer shaft. Thus, the movement of thevehicle rotates the driving axle 7 and the change gear 11 and thusoperates the distributer shaft 2 in the desired manner.

To cause different speeds of rotation of the distributer shaft the bevelgear 5 is splined to the connecting shaft a and is moved along thisshaft by a yoke 9, the yoke being slidable along a rod 12 supported byan extension :21 of the journal 30 at its lower end and fastened to thegrain hopper 1 at its upper end through an intervening indicator section20. As the yoke 9 is moved up and down along the rod 12 the bevel pinionor gear 5 is correspondingly elevated and thus the ratio of speed ofshaft 2 to axle 7 is changed. In order to maintain the bevel gear 5 inthe desired position a spring latch 15 is employed.

The parts thus far described are substantially those found in the priorpatents and the invention of the present application will be nextdescribed.

It has been found by long usage that when the bearing plate 91 and theaxle journal 36 were bored to provide journals forthe connecting shaftl, in some cases an insufficient amount of bearing surface was providedbecause of the rough and hard usage which such devices as grain drillsreceived. In order to improve this part of the construction the presentinvention provides an integral cylindrical portion extending downwardlyfrom the bearing plate 91, as clearly shown in Fig. 2. Here it will beseen that the portion 32 is simply cast into the bearing plate 91 andprovides an elongated journal around which the upper end of theconnecting shaft 4- may rotate.

This shaft 4- is shown as polygonal in cross section. but may be of anydesired shape and at its upper end it is provided with a cylindricalaperture extending axially of the shaft t and closely fitting andsurrounding the journal portion 32 around which it rotates. The upperbevel pinion 71 is provided with a polygonal aperture at its lower endclosely surrounding the upper end of the shaft 4t and this upper end ofthe shaft l abuts against a portion 72 of the gear 71. Thus thecylindrical. portion llil 32 of the bearing block 91 provides a journalfor the upper portion of the gear 71 and also for the shaft 4.

Similarly the journal or housing 30 surrounding the driving axle 7 isprovided with an upwardly extending portion preferably cast therein andmarked with the numeral 31. This extends a considerable distance intothe shaft 4 and at its lower end this shaft is provided with acylindrical aperture axially of its length closely surrounding andfitting the journal extension 31. The bevel pinion 5 is splined to theshaft 4: as before stated and when the shaft 4 is polygonal in crosssection this may be done by providing the bevel pinion 5 with asimilarly shaped central aperture.

It will be seen that the construction herein disclosed permits of theemployment of quite long journals 31 and 32 for the connecting shaft 4:.Thus the journals are not likely to break and a long period of use maybe had without suflicient wear of the parts to cause any trouble. Also,it is comparatively easy to oil these journals with the presentconstruction and to this end an oil pipe 92 passes down through thebearing block 91 and ends at a point where oil may be convenientlyapplied around the cylindrical journal portion 32. Also in the lowerportion of the shaft 4; an oil hole 93 may be provided so as to oil thelower journal portion 31.

While I have shown and described certain features as constituting myinvention, it will be understood that parts have been shown for purposesof illustration only, and that I do not desire to be limited to suchdetails, as obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in theart.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a grain drill, the combination, with a feed shaft, a bearing blockin which said shaft rotates, said bearing block having a dependingjournal cast therein, a gear rotating the feed shaft, a driving axle,and a change gear secured thereto, a bearing block for said axle havinganupstanding journal cast therein, a connecting shaft between thedriving axle and feed shaft having bearings at its ends, said bearings,respectively, surrounding said journals, a gear secured to the upper endof the connecting shaft and meshing with the gear on the feed shaft, anda gear splined to the lower end of the connecting shaft and meshing withthe change gear.

2. In a grain drill, the combination, with a feed shaft, a bearing blockin which said shaft rotates, said block having a depending journal fixedtherein, a gear rotating the feed shaft, a drive axle and a gear securedthereto, a bearing block for said axle having an upstanding journalfixed therein, a connecting shaft between the driving axle and feedshaft having bearings at its ends, surrounding said journalsrespectively, a gear secured to the upper end of the connecting shaftand meshing with the gear on the feed shaft, and a gear secured to thelower end of the connecting shaft and meshing with the gear on saidaxle.

3. In a rain drill, the combination, with a feed sha t, a bearing blockin which said shaft rotates, said block having a depending journal fixedtherein, a gear rotating the feed shaft, a driving axle and a changegear secured thereto, a bearing block for said axle having an upstandingjournal fixed therein, a connecting shaft between the driving axle andfeed shaft having bearings at its ends surrounding said journalsrespectively, a gear secured to the upper end of the connecting shaftand meshing with the gear on the feed shaft, a gear splined to the lowerend of the connecting shaft and meshing with the change gear, and meansto move said gear axially on the connecting shaft.

L. In a grain drill, the combination, with a bearing block having adepending journal integral therewith and a bearing block for a drivingaxle having an upstanding journal integral therewith, of a shaft havingbearings axially arranged in its ends, said bearings surrounding andfitting closely the respective journals, said shaft having a portion atits upper end polygonal in cross section, and a pinion having anaperture fitting closely around the polygonal portion of said shaft.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

CHARLES H. PELTON.

